erself.

"How dare you, Helen?" she cried, in an outraged tone. "You--mustn't
take any notice of her, Mr. Bryant. You see, she isn't
altogether--responsible. She has a naturally truth-loving nature, but
she has somehow become corrupted by contamination with this--this
dreadful village. I--I feel very sorry for her at times," she added,
laughing. "But really it can't be helped. She keeps awful company."

"Well, I like that," protested Helen, now thoroughly restored to good
humor by the conviction that Big Brother Bill had not witnessed her
shameful trouble. "Mr. Bryant will soon know which of us to believe,
after a statement like that."

"I always believe everybody." The man laughed heartily. "It saves an
awful lot of trouble."

"Does it?" inquired Kate, as she slipped quietly into the other
rocker.

Helen shook her head decidedly.

"Not when you're living in this 'dump' of a village. Say, Mr. Bryant,
you've heard of Mr. Ananias in the Bible? If you haven't you ought to
have. Well, the people who wrote about him never guessed there was
such a place as Rocky Springs, or they'd sure have choked rather than
have written about such a milk-and-water sort of liar as Mr. Ananias.
Truth, he's not a--circumstance. All you need to believe in Rocky
Springs is what you come up against, and then you don't need to be too
sure you haven't got--visions."

"Yes, and generally mighty unpleasant--visions," chimed in Kate, with
a laugh.

Bill's smiling eyes refused to become serious under the portent of
these warnings.

"Guess I've been around Rocky Springs about five hours, and the
visions I've had, so far, don't seem to worry me a thing," he said.

Helen smiled. She remembered her first meeting with this man.

"What were you doing with Fyles to-day?" she inquired unguardedly.

Bill suddenly brought his fist down on the arm of his rocker.

"There," he cried, as though he had suddenly made a great discovery.
"I knew it was you I saw on the trail. Why," he added, with guileful
simplicity, "you were wearing that very suit you have on now. Say,
was there ever such a fool, not recognizing you before?"

Helen was deceived--and so easily.

"I didn't think you really saw me," she said, without the least shame.
"You were so busy with the--sights." Bill nodded.

"Yes, we'd just come along down past that mighty big pine. Fyles had
told me it was the landmark. I--I was just thinking about things."

"Thinking about the old pine?"